Will Swift Build the Next IndyCar? Check It Out!

Swift Engineering, the noted race-car builder from San Clemente, California, has just announced that it will partner with Cray supercomputers, Mark One Composites and Cruden America in a bid to build the next-generation chassis for the 2012 Izod IndyCar series. Swift president, Jan Wesley Refsdal, says it's only natural that the company, with its 27-year history, aspire to partner with the nation's premier open-wheel formula, the Izod IndyCar series.

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Swift's director of motorsport, Casper Van der Schoot, says, "Our goal is no less than for the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500 to be run exclusively with Swift chassis." To that end, the company has come up with some intriguing new designs that leave most of the engine (whatever it may be) uncovered. "IndyCar fans love to see the engines and mechanical bits normally shielded behind the bodywork," says Van der Schoot, who adds that Swift's concepts incorporate retro-style cues that harken back to the 50s, 60s and 70s IndyCar eras. Continues Van der Schoot: "Our wind-tunnel tests have shown the engine cover has very little effect on aerodynamics compared to most other components of the car. We saw an opportunity to showcase the engine and other `jewelry' while preserving efficiency with a much smaller fairing."

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The images of cars No. 23, 32 and 33 featured here reveal a few possible directions that Swift may pursue in building the 2012 IndyCar chassis. All, however, will have one thing in common: a Mushroom Buster. In this concept, which refers to the mushroom shape of the car's aerodynamic wake signature, the lead car effectively sweeps up its own wake, thereby improving the handling of the car behind and increasing the chance of on-track passing. The concept, in the process of being patented by Swift, is already at work on the company's Formula Nippon car being raced in Japan. A car, I might add, that has organic curves much like those on the IndyCar concepts seen here.

Swift has also incorporated a series of super-bright "SwiftLights" lights into the design of the IndyCar concepts, to convey real-time information to the fans about fuel level, race position, and even throttle and brake position. Light sheets, only 1 mm thick, are able to be molded over the complex shapes of the IndyCar bodywork.

So, what do you think? Should Swift's innovative ideas become the IndyCar of the future? The folks just down the California coast in San Clemente sure hope so.